The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 eBook

excited against Rama, rushed at Jamadagni in his hermitage,
while Rama was away. And they slew him there;
for although his strength was great, yet being at
the time engaged in penances, he would not fight.
And while thus attacked by his foes, he repeatedly
shouted the name of Rama in a helpless and piteous
way. And, O Yudhishthira, the sons of Kartavirya
shot Jamadagni, with their arrows, and having thus
chastised their foe, went their way. And when
they had gone away, and when Jamadagni had breathed
his last, Rama, the delight of Bhrigu’s race,
returned to the hermitage, bearing in his arms, fuel
for religious rites. And the hero beheld his
father who had been put to death. And grieved
exceedingly he began to bewail the unworthy fate that
had laid his father low.”

SECTION CXVII

“Rama said, ’The blame is mine, O father,
that like a stag in the wood, thou hast been shot
dead with arrows, by those mean and stupid wretches—­the
sons of Kartavirya. And O father, virtuous and
unswerving from the path of righteousness and inoffensive
to all animated beings as thou wert, how came it to
be permitted by Fate that thou shouldst die in this
way? What an awful sin must have been committed
by them, who have killed thee with hundreds of sharpened
shafts, although thou wert an aged man, and engaged
in penances at the time and absolutely averse to fighting
with them. With what face will those shameless
persons speak of this deed of theirs to their friends
and servants, viz., that they have slain an unassisted
and unresisting virtuous man?—­O protector
of men, thus he, great in penance, bewailed much in
a piteous manner, and then performed the obsequies
of his departed sire. And Rama, the conqueror
of hostile cities, cremated his father on the funeral
pyre, and vowed, O scion of Bharata’s race,
the slaughter of the entire military caste, and of
exceeding strength in the field of battle, and possessed
of valour suited to a heroic soul, and comparable
to the god of death himself, he took up his weapon
in wrathful mood, and singlehanded put Kartavirya’s
sons to death. And, O chieftain of the military
caste, Rama, the leader of all capable of beating
their foes, thrice smote down all the Kashatriya followers
of Kartavirya’s sons. And seven times did
that powerful lord exterminate the military tribes
of the earth. In the tract of land, called Samantapanchaka
five lakes of blood were made by him. There the
mightiest scion of Bhrigu’s race offered libations
to his forefathers—­the Bhrigus, and Richika
appeared to him in a visible form, and spake to him
words of counsel. Then the son of Jamadagni of
dreaded name, performed a mighty sacrifice and gratified
the lord of the celestials, and bestowed the earth
to the ministering priests. And, O protector
of human beings, he raised an altar made of gold, ten
Vyamas in breadth and nine in height, and made a gift
of the same to the magnanimous Kasyapa. Then